Renault Formula One team gets 2-year suspended ban
September 21st, 2009 - 8:25 pm ICT by ANIParis, Sep 21 (ANI): The FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) on Monday handed over a two-year suspended ban to Renault Formula One team for ordering former driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash his car during the 2008 season’s Singapore Grand Prix to help teammate Fernando Alonso win.
Following a meeting of the WMSC in Paris, the governing body ruled that the team was guilty of an offence of “unparalleled severity” after causing a deliberate crash in last year’s Singapore event, Autosport.com reports.
Though the charges of conspiracy and race fixing were serious and was worthy of exclusion from the F1 world championship, a lighter decision was taken as Renault had admitted to its guilt and had taken action against former team principal Briatore and director of engineering Pat Symonds, who were involved in the incident.
Briatore, who quit the team last week, has been banned indefinitely from any F1 activities, while Engineering executive director Pat Symonds, who also left the team last week, has been banned for five years.
The allegations surfaced after Piquet Jr. left the Renault team in August 2009, when it was alleged that the crash had been deliberate in order to give an advantage to Alonso.
Later, following an FIA investigation, Piquet, Jr. stated that he had been asked by Renault team principle Flavio Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds to stage the crash. (ANI)
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